use real butter

Recipe: chinese lion’s head meatballs

Have you entered to win a scarf made by yours truly yet? You’ve got one more day. And even if you live in let’s say, a volcano, you can always give the scarf as a gift to someone you like! Or you could give it to your sworn enemy as a gesture of good will as opposed to a swift kick in the shins. Just sayin’.

Jeremy and I attended a tweet up in Boulder Tuesday evening at Centro hosted by Rick Bakas (follow on Twitter @RickBakas) and St. Supéry. I know it seems backwards, but Twitter has kept me connected with many of my global blog friends while introducing me to several local people – many of whom I get to meet in real life (IRL) at tweet ups, community events, and the like. Plus, it’s so nice to finally speak to these good people without having to worry about that 140 character limit.

there were five wines for tasting

centro filled up

centro serves up latin fare in a lively atmosphere

the wall o’ live tweets

kurt heckel brings great wines like st. supéry to all of colorado

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I have done zero with respect to Thanksgiving dinner. I’m not all that worried. I know we’ll have dinner, but it won’t be a Thanksgiving dinner this year. It will be… dinner (something that swims or at least used to swim). The thought of a giant meal makes me sleepy which in turn makes me want to go play in the snow and burn a lot of calories. Hey – no one ever said I made any sense! My Dad has been known to boycott the traditional turkey ever since I left home for college, so it isn’t all that out of character for me to follow in his footsteps.

A specialty that my dad makes is called Lion’s head meatballs. These are giant Chinese pork meatballs that are tender, full of flavor, and very moist. Two years ago when I was at my parents’ home, I asked my dad to show me how to make the recipe and it took me a couple of tries to get it right in my own kitchen. It’s one of Jeremy’s favorite dishes and my parents always make some whenever we visit.

ground pork, green onions, ginger, bamboo shoots, chinese mushrooms

coat the meatballs in flour

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: ma pu tofu

NaBloWriMo day 29.

Okay, I have caught up on answering questions in the comments. Sorry about falling behind. *pointing finger at NaBloWriMo*

The day after my grandma’s 88th birthday while I was still in California, Jeremy relayed the sad news that his own grandmother had passed away that morning. It was a shock as I cried into my aunt’s shoulder. I call my MIL, Mom. I call my FIL, Dad. I called Jeremy’s grandfather, Grandpa and I called his grandmother, Grandma. She was my grandma too.

she loved pink

Not long after Jeremy and I started dating almost 17 years ago to the day, we took a trip to New Mexico and I met his family. And then I went to Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house to meet all of the aunts, uncles, cousins… We paid a visit before dinner and his grandparents treated me like one of their own. It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that these two very special people were the sweetest, most gentle souls in Jeremy’s life. He would go to their house before and after school, every day from age 6 to 16. He even kept his bike there (which Jeremy informs me is a big deal). Jeremy told me they always had the good sugary cereals in their cupboards. And of course, he spent every Sunday at his grandparents’ house – the whole clan did. They didn’t just go for Sunday dinner, they went in the morning and played cards and games. It was the hub of activity for the family.

Sunday dinners continued after Grandpa passed away twelve years ago. Whenever we were in town, we always reserved Sundays for Grandma’s house. If we weren’t staying over a Sunday, we’d make a point of visiting with Grandma. She loved chocolate, loved the color pink, loved having her grandchildren around, loved to eat out with friends. Grandma was an ace bowler, did the crossword puzzle every day, beat the pants off of everyone at Gin Rummy, won first place regularly at the state fair for her handwork… but most of all, she gave good hugs and had a smile that lit up the room. In the morning, we drive to New Mexico to be with Jeremy’s family and to say good-bye to this beautiful woman whose love nurtured three generations.

It’s been cold and snowy here. While cross country skiing yesterday, Jeremy and I silently made our way through the woods both lost in our own thoughts, both thinking about his grandmother. It only made sense that dinner tonight should be a comfort food – one that warms the body and sets the mind and heart at ease.

pork, bamboo shoots, green onions, chinese black mushrooms, chili-garlic sauce, tofu

minced black mushrooms (rehydrated), green onions, bamboo shoots

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: stir fried rice

NaBloWriMo day 16 (we’re over the hump!)

Eat on $30 day 6

Today was so wacked out. You see, we are having a dinner party on Sunday and I went into town to purchase groceries for the party. I can’t tell you how nice it was to comparison shop, but not have to worry about a decisive budget like last week! I bought a lot of very very nice seafood. Oh! and vegetables – gorgeous gorgeous vegetables and fruits and cheeses and wines (so many lovely wines). All the while, it made me a little sad because you see, I can step out of this self-imposed challenge whenever I want to. It ends Saturday and Jeremy and I can resume eating. What about people who have to stress over their food – and I mean really stress, not “Oh, what shall we serve our guests? Sancerre or Chablis?” – day after day, month after month. It never ends.

We’re coming to the last day of the challenge and while I love love love my readers for their insightful and thoughtful comments, observations, suggestions, while I love that we ARE raising awareness, I can’t help but feel a little helpless. A lot helpless. Sure, I made the $60 challenge for 2 people. We ate well. It would be folly for me to assume that because I could do it, people on food assistance can too. It’s not a level playing field. I don’t even want to begin describing the cooking equipment I have at my disposal, the culinary knowledge and experience, the desire. We are also assuming that we all love to cook and that doesn’t apply to everyone. Others doing the Eat on $30 challenge have touched on it too. There are many more factors than just money that are stacked against the hungry: time, equipment, math skills, transportation, knowledge, access. Most businesses locate where they can maximize profit, not where they can help the most people.

So I was in Boulder all day Thursday and I had $1.69 burning a hole in my pocket. I wandered into another grocery store, Sunflower. I forgot about them during my aggregation of groceries for this week’s challenge. I also got tired thinking of visiting a fifth store to price things out (at some point, you just scream “stop!”). But Sunflower has a great bulk section and I wandered about looking for some sweet treats to nibble on in the evenings. Can I just bitch for a(nother) moment? Why can’t I find a scale in the bulk section of Whole Foods? Apparently, they don’t want me weighing what I decided not to buy… Sunflower did have a scale – a crappy analog scale. When buying quantities on the order of a couple of ounces (remember, the $1.69 budget) those analogs are useless. I wound up purchasing the cheapest (on sale) item: gummy bears. I got about 20 of those colorful, sugar-filled, deliciously fruity little guys at $1.99 a pound.

psst! see fred passed out over there? too many appletinis…

I figured I could also get a few banana chips – less than a handful at $2.49 a pound. The whole bean coffee was $6.99 for any type of coffee. I know nearly nothing about coffee but decided to get some. You see, a few days after our challenge began, Tami said she had the worst headache ever because she didn’t have coffee in her budget. If you will recall, Jeremy opted out of coffee because I couldn’t find any decent coffee (he’s a picky one) at Safeway (running something like $11.99 a pound for the whole bean coffee). When he came home Tuesday, I said, “Tami said she’s got a horrible headache because she hasn’t had any coffee.” He looked at me and pointed at his left eye, “I feel like there is a needle behind this eye. It’s been like that all day.” I asked if it was because of the lack of coffee and he nodded. I should also point out that Jeremy has been getting up at 3 am and observing on the telescope for several hours each morning and then going to work for a full day, then coming home and working all night – all without Precious Coffee. I felt so bad about that. You can just imagine when I saw the $6.99 per pound sign I scooped what I thought was about an ounce of beans into a bag as a surprise for my guy. A reward for his good efforts in the last few days of the challenge.

1.92 ounces of coffee beans!

I wound up paying $.28 for the gummy bears, $.20 for the banana chips, and $.84 for the coffee! Then I got a $.10 refund for my shopping bag. My total: $1.27. I have $.42 left! When I walked to the register to pay for my snacks, I spied the free coffee station with those cute little 3 oz. cups. I was about to pick Jeremy up from campus to go home, so I filled a little cup with their organic dark roast as an extra bonus for him. As soon as he got in the car I handed him the little cup. You should have seen the smile on his face! He had some interesting observations on his reaction to the coffee:

I am convinced that I get an anticipatory high from the caffeine before I taste it much less digest it. I smell the coffee and hold a warm vessel in my hands and my personal internal pharmacy injects some goodies to give me a warm glow, positive outlook, and energy boost. ~Jeremy

Here’s what we had today (day 6): oatmeal for brekkie (Jeremy), bagel for brekkie (jen), beef stew for lunch (jeremy), soy sauce egg for lunch (jen), the remaining soy sauce chicken noodle soup for dinner, apple turnovers for dessert (which we ate BEFORE dinner), the last of the gummy bears and all of the banana chips. Jeremy has been enjoying coffee in his French press for the past day.

The fried rice we had on Thursday was a combination of leftovers. That’s why I love fried rice, you can put anything in it. I used a third of the rice to eat plain with the beef stew, and the remaining two thirds to make fried rice with a whole yellow onion, a third of the beef kielbasa sausage, four eggs, and four stalks of celery.

ready to cook

hard scramble the eggs

**Jump for more butter**